Category Archives: Teaching

Tumult at the Tech

Posted on April 13, 2013 by

I was back in the archives last week: this time looking, inter alia, at the early editions of the student-run Glasgow Technical College Magazine. It’s a surprisingly useful resource for the enquiry I’m vaguely pursuing, and it sheds more light … Continue reading →

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Dyer’s hand

Posted on February 16, 2013 by

More notes from the Tech College… Digging around among the institutional histories, I came across a reference to The Education of Civil and Mechanical Engineers (E. & F. N. Spon, London, 1880) by Professor Henry Dyer, later a life governor of the … Continue reading →

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Beyond the pail

Posted on February 7, 2013 by

Earlier this week, a colleague tells me, a student walked out of one of his lectures in protest. This wasn’t exactly the spirit of ’68 revived. The lecture was part of an introductory course in classical mechanics, and the student’s … Continue reading →

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What if 94% of teachers are better than average?

Posted on January 19, 2013 by

In its ceaseless strip-mining of institutional humour, Dilbert the other day dug up the old line about 74% of managers thinking they were above average. This is only one of a large collection of such factoids, usually (and probably justly) … Continue reading →

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Begging the questionnaire

Posted on December 20, 2012 by

At a recent department meeting, I was apparently singled out for having achieved what my line manager thought were excellent results in the end-of-term student feedback questionnaires. I don’t believe in prizes for teaching, and I’m putting my line manager’s … Continue reading →

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